The Longest Night of the Year

The Winter Solstice is upon us, the longest night of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted the furthest away from the Sun.  Some ancient cultures believed this was the death and rebirth of the Sun.  As I watch the cyclical nature of life, of night and day, of growth, etc., the idea that today represents the death and rebirth of the Sun really speaks to me.

My church has an annual evening service around this time of year to mark this day.  Last year, tears flowed down my face in the sanctuary lit only by candles and Christmas lights as I sat alone in the darkness of my grief.  I hadn't been back long from a trip to southern Florida with my parents and so from the high of that trip hadn't expected the grief the service would bring.  As hard as that night was, it was exactly the place I needed to be then.

This year, I sat with friends and then enjoyed the community of a bonfire afterwards in the courtyard.  My soul was moved through the music played by a group of string players and the vocalist of our contemporary band, I mediated on the cry to God from a cave that Daniel wrote in his darkest moments in Psalm 142, and I leaned into a message of the turning point to come.

I've sat through the darkness.  I've grown from the darkness.  And although I know life will cycle back to the darkness from time to time, I feel like it's my time to step into the light.